Okay so this is going to be boring, but it's probably going to be really important if you want to understand how Trump's foreign and economic policies intertwine.
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Okay so this is going to be boring, but it's probably going to be really important if you want to understand how Trump's foreign and economic policies intertwine. Which in turn might make it easier to understand why I'm saying this is different in some relevant ways to bog standard US imperialism.
The concept you need to understand, is called autarky. Shoutout to my buddy Nick for giving me a crash course on how this worked in the interwar and WWII era in Europe because I need that now.
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Okay so this is going to be boring, but it's probably going to be really important if you want to understand how Trump's foreign and economic policies intertwine. Which in turn might make it easier to understand why I'm saying this is different in some relevant ways to bog standard US imperialism.
The concept you need to understand, is called autarky. Shoutout to my buddy Nick for giving me a crash course on how this worked in the interwar and WWII era in Europe because I need that now.
An autarky is in theory, a closed economy state that functions completely independently of any other state, requiring no trade or importing of resources whatsoever. Autarkies literally don't really exist, but the concept of an autarky is extremely appealing to nationalists for, reasons. This will be important later.
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An autarky is in theory, a closed economy state that functions completely independently of any other state, requiring no trade or importing of resources whatsoever. Autarkies literally don't really exist, but the concept of an autarky is extremely appealing to nationalists for, reasons. This will be important later.
The fact is, even a hundred years ago, it is pretty much impossible for a state to exist in total isolation without trade or imports - the things you need to sustain life, run an economy, and like, build things, are typically not found all in one place. However, nationalist leaders have found it effective to sell the idea that their states must BECOME a functional autarky. And that means whatever resources that state needs, but does not have to function self-sufficiently must be? Taken.
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The fact is, even a hundred years ago, it is pretty much impossible for a state to exist in total isolation without trade or imports - the things you need to sustain life, run an economy, and like, build things, are typically not found all in one place. However, nationalist leaders have found it effective to sell the idea that their states must BECOME a functional autarky. And that means whatever resources that state needs, but does not have to function self-sufficiently must be? Taken.
You will not be surprised to learn that Hitler's Nazi Party, and the Italian Fascist movement under Mussolini, both pitched the idea of an autarky-based empire and intertwined that with nationalist propaganda to manufacture consent and a popular desire to invade a bunch of countries - you may remember this, we call it World War II.
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You will not be surprised to learn that Hitler's Nazi Party, and the Italian Fascist movement under Mussolini, both pitched the idea of an autarky-based empire and intertwined that with nationalist propaganda to manufacture consent and a popular desire to invade a bunch of countries - you may remember this, we call it World War II.
Now, with an understanding of how an autarky functions, or does not function, and what attempts to establish an autarky typically run cover for. I would posit to you that much of Trump's energy, economic, and foreign policy is built around very similar ideas and rationalizations as Hitler and Mussolini's autarky fantasies/excuses for war.
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Now, with an understanding of how an autarky functions, or does not function, and what attempts to establish an autarky typically run cover for. I would posit to you that much of Trump's energy, economic, and foreign policy is built around very similar ideas and rationalizations as Hitler and Mussolini's autarky fantasies/excuses for war.
Furthermore, I think given that this is 2026 and this administration is owned wholly by a bunch of Tech billionaire nazi cultists, they've been pretty clear about which resources the United States is seeking to establish global dominance over under the guise of self-sufficiency. Energy, for starters - which Trump has decreed will be fossil fuels and only fossil fuels. Rare minerals and lithium for the batteries they need to make hellscape cyberpunk work for another.
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Furthermore, I think given that this is 2026 and this administration is owned wholly by a bunch of Tech billionaire nazi cultists, they've been pretty clear about which resources the United States is seeking to establish global dominance over under the guise of self-sufficiency. Energy, for starters - which Trump has decreed will be fossil fuels and only fossil fuels. Rare minerals and lithium for the batteries they need to make hellscape cyberpunk work for another.
I also wouldn't sleep on the time that Elon was tweeking out on Twitter (before he bought it) and said he needed a vast percentage of the world's raw materials to get the species to Mars and he couldn't believe you were being so mean about not giving it to him.
I don't think he was kidding, and he owns President Oil. At least in part.
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I also wouldn't sleep on the time that Elon was tweeking out on Twitter (before he bought it) and said he needed a vast percentage of the world's raw materials to get the species to Mars and he couldn't believe you were being so mean about not giving it to him.
I don't think he was kidding, and he owns President Oil. At least in part.
Now, understand - this will never work. The United States will never be able to sustain its standard of living or even operational capacity under an autarky-based economy. We simply consume too much shit to keep it all under lock and key ourselves. But it doesn't really have to work, and the nazis driving our foreign policy don't really care if it works anyway. The idea, the theory, is mostly there to create a path to attacking other countries and taking the resources the rich guys want for free
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Now, understand - this will never work. The United States will never be able to sustain its standard of living or even operational capacity under an autarky-based economy. We simply consume too much shit to keep it all under lock and key ourselves. But it doesn't really have to work, and the nazis driving our foreign policy don't really care if it works anyway. The idea, the theory, is mostly there to create a path to attacking other countries and taking the resources the rich guys want for free
You? Will of course pay - in the form of all the ways you fund a government spending a trillion dollars a year on its military.
Elon however? Will get his lithium and his energy free, or at cost. And then I guess he can be richer and murder more people who ain't like him.
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You? Will of course pay - in the form of all the ways you fund a government spending a trillion dollars a year on its military.
Elon however? Will get his lithium and his energy free, or at cost. And then I guess he can be richer and murder more people who ain't like him.
tl;dr they want the oil to literally build "a trillion artificial minds," fight a genocidal race war, and maybe run to space. Also to power a bunch of Network States that will be surveillance security states - lotta AI, lotta camera, lotta data centers, etc.
They want it, because the future they envision can't happen without it. And they want to secure it now, because they know it's only going to get harder as more of the planet burns.
They'll do fresh water just as hard eventually.
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